rubber band to create arms.
Tie a ribbon around the neck and arm joints.
Let your child paint on a face and other features with the fabric paint.
Block Building
There are many ways that your child will benefit from block play. Blocks are an open-ended material, meaning that your child is free to create and imagine whatever she dreams of. When she is building with blocks, she is learning problem-solving and mathematical concepts including spatial relationships, balance, and shapes.
Block City
Help set the stage for many block-building adventures.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
Plastic tarp or old plastic table cloth
Ruler
Permanent markers
Scissors
Photos or magazine pictures of different buildings
White craft glue
Lay out the tarp to define the city limits. Help your child use the ruler and markers to draw streets, parks, and other desired features.
Trim magazine pictures of buildings to glue onto the face of your child’s building blocks. A fun alternative is to help your child take photos of buildings in your neighborhood. Capture easy-to-recognize buildings such as city hall, the library, or the firehouse. Only a few blocks have to be decorated with pictures.
Let your child enjoy building a cityscape with the blocks.
Stuffed Blocks
Save money and add fun to your child’s imaginative block play.
These blocks are lighter than traditional wooden blocks as well.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
Newspaper
Empty food boxes, such as those from cereal, rice, or macaroni and cheese
Masking tape
Decorative contact paper (optional)
Show your child how to crumple the newspaper into tight wads.
Have your child stuff the newspaper wads into the boxes. Be sure to stuff each box to the top.
Securely seal each box with tape.
If you wish, you can help your child decorate the blocks with contact paper.
Paper Logs
Here is a simple way to create safe logs for building and imaginative play.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
Newspaper
Scotch tape
Spread three sheets of newspaper on the table.
Show your child how to roll the paper into tight tubes.
Securely seal each tube with tape.
Let your child make a lot of these to use for building, pretend campfires, and more.
Pretend Play Games
Most likely, your child will not need much encouragement to engage in pretend play on his own, but if she does, these activities can get the ball rolling. You will notice that each activity also promotes social interaction.
Act It Out
This simplified version of charades is a great activity for the whole family.
Activity for a group
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
White craft glue
Magazine pictures of characters and animals that are easy to mime
Index cards
A hat or other container
Kitchen timer
Before the game, glue the magazine pictures onto the index cards.
Place the cards into a hat or other container.
Each person gets a turn to “act it out.” The player removes a picture from the hat and gets 10 seconds on the timer to imitate/mime the character on the card. When the time is up, other players guess the picture.
You can choose to let the person who guesses correctly have the next turn or the turns can be predetermined.
Character in a Bag
This is a silly game that will get your child’s imagination going!
Be sure to use clothing that is easy to put on and take off.
Activity for a group
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
3 paper grocery bags
Markers
A variety of clothing, shoes, and accessories (vintage or costume items add to the fun)
Label the bags with markers. You can number them or use shapes or colors to make it easier.
Sort the clothing, shoes, and accessories. Place the clothing in the first bag, the shoes in the second bag, and the accessories such as hats and handbags in the third
Tie a ribbon around the neck and arm joints.
Let your child paint on a face and other features with the fabric paint.
Block Building
There are many ways that your child will benefit from block play. Blocks are an open-ended material, meaning that your child is free to create and imagine whatever she dreams of. When she is building with blocks, she is learning problem-solving and mathematical concepts including spatial relationships, balance, and shapes.
Block City
Help set the stage for many block-building adventures.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
Plastic tarp or old plastic table cloth
Ruler
Permanent markers
Scissors
Photos or magazine pictures of different buildings
White craft glue
Lay out the tarp to define the city limits. Help your child use the ruler and markers to draw streets, parks, and other desired features.
Trim magazine pictures of buildings to glue onto the face of your child’s building blocks. A fun alternative is to help your child take photos of buildings in your neighborhood. Capture easy-to-recognize buildings such as city hall, the library, or the firehouse. Only a few blocks have to be decorated with pictures.
Let your child enjoy building a cityscape with the blocks.
Stuffed Blocks
Save money and add fun to your child’s imaginative block play.
These blocks are lighter than traditional wooden blocks as well.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 30 minutes
Newspaper
Empty food boxes, such as those from cereal, rice, or macaroni and cheese
Masking tape
Decorative contact paper (optional)
Show your child how to crumple the newspaper into tight wads.
Have your child stuff the newspaper wads into the boxes. Be sure to stuff each box to the top.
Securely seal each box with tape.
If you wish, you can help your child decorate the blocks with contact paper.
Paper Logs
Here is a simple way to create safe logs for building and imaginative play.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
Newspaper
Scotch tape
Spread three sheets of newspaper on the table.
Show your child how to roll the paper into tight tubes.
Securely seal each tube with tape.
Let your child make a lot of these to use for building, pretend campfires, and more.
Pretend Play Games
Most likely, your child will not need much encouragement to engage in pretend play on his own, but if she does, these activities can get the ball rolling. You will notice that each activity also promotes social interaction.
Act It Out
This simplified version of charades is a great activity for the whole family.
Activity for a group
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
White craft glue
Magazine pictures of characters and animals that are easy to mime
Index cards
A hat or other container
Kitchen timer
Before the game, glue the magazine pictures onto the index cards.
Place the cards into a hat or other container.
Each person gets a turn to “act it out.” The player removes a picture from the hat and gets 10 seconds on the timer to imitate/mime the character on the card. When the time is up, other players guess the picture.
You can choose to let the person who guesses correctly have the next turn or the turns can be predetermined.
Character in a Bag
This is a silly game that will get your child’s imagination going!
Be sure to use clothing that is easy to put on and take off.
Activity for a group
Age group: 18–40 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
3 paper grocery bags
Markers
A variety of clothing, shoes, and accessories (vintage or costume items add to the fun)
Label the bags with markers. You can number them or use shapes or colors to make it easier.
Sort the clothing, shoes, and accessories. Place the clothing in the first bag, the shoes in the second bag, and the accessories such as hats and handbags in the third
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